Deeg67

Best MUFC in English football.

38 (!) shots for Ipswich, 13 on target. You gotta love sports.

That's a proper giant killing right there.

Well, Justin is in the squad anyway.

There is a fair amount of twitter static that Arsenal are trying to hijack this.

I'm skeptical of this. How much is a promotion worth, as compared to another season in the Championship with no parachute payments? It's elusive, but certainly more than 30 million. Letting KDH go makes absolutely no sense and I feel 99.99% Glover at least is not stupid enough to advocate for it, so if this is happening it's being driven by ownership against the wishes of the football side. It's possible of course, but just doesn't make sense.

The thing about that, though, is that Farke has Piroe waiting in the wings if Bamford goes off the boil. Important for us to have at least one of Daka and Kelechi in top form when they’re back, because Cannon is still raw and Vardy is physically past being able to be a mainstay. They can be effective as a change of pace but we need one of our wayward African sons to be the main guy. When I see the question of whether anyone can “see a circumstance” where we drop out of the top two, well, sure - with 18 games left our cushion is hardly insurmountable. I don’t see Ipswich finishing in the top two but both Saints and Leeds have the firepower to go an extended winning runs, and we’ve hardly looked dominating over the last several weeks. The thing is though, there are so many sides in this league that we simply outclass and overmatch that it seems very unlikely we’d drop enough points for those two teams to pass us. Not impossible, but even when indifferent we’ve still generally managed to get the job done against lesser sides.

Much of these frantic labour pains are surely overblown - we’re still atop the league fairly comfortably. But the one ongoing trend that worries me is how slow Enzo is to make subs, and how often he leaves multiple subs unused. This was (yes, I know, but it’s true) a major Rodgers issue as well. Enzo is very pragmatically taking an approach that’s probably good enough to win us automatic promotion with our squad’s talent level. He’s not naive enough to believe it will work in the PL, surely, but he’s been pretty inflexible this season. Is that because circumstances have allowed it, or because that’s his nature as a manager? I don’t think we’ll know until next season.

Well, they’re the only side in the league that hasn’t lost at home, so by definition if anyone can make the argument they can. We should win the league, but the other spot is totally up for grabs as far as I’m concerned. Ipswich is tied with Saints and only four points ahead of Leeds if we beat them, and that’s a pittance with almost 20 games left.

I imagine both those sides will be pulling for us against Ipswich. Truthfully, we should win the league. We’ve been clearly the best side all season. Not the most entertaining, perhaps, but the most consistent and balanced across the pitch. It would be surprising if that was still in doubt on the last day. Southampton or Leeds is interesting. On form Southampton is certainly better at the moment. But Farke has won this league the last two seasons he was in it, and Martin is Martin. Leeds has been basically unbeatable at home this season so if they’re able to reel in Southampton going into that day you’d have to like their chances.

I would really love to see a genuine underdog story like Luton survive, and if Everton gets another dock and Forest gets one I think they have a real shot.

Yeah, you shouldn’t, but clearly you’re not too concerned about how that makes you look. It’s an interesting oddity that popped up on my twitter feed - last I checked the odds of that happening are ridiculously long. Not sure why that should offend you or anyone else.

Interesting trivia: Leeds were drawn away 13 consecutive times in the FA Cup before today. Odds of that happening were 0.0122%.

I mean, a team in National League South beating a League One side is a proper giant killing. Not every 3rd round has one of those.

Praet not injured by the way, out with an unspecified illness.

Are you suggesting our wingers are better than Summerville and James? Would Gnonto be a bench player for us? Numbers don’t lie.. Summerville - 9G, 6A (1323 MP) James - 7G, 4A (1270 MP) Mavididi - 5G, 4A (1569 MP) Fatawu - 2G, 3A (938 MP) McAteer - 4G, 0A (664 MP) That’s 26 goal contributions in about 2500 minutes from their top two wingers, and 18 in about 3170 minutes from our top three. No question we’ve had the better side across the pitch, but there’s no way our wingers (or anyone else’s in this league) have been on a level with theirs.

Amazing stat: Sunderland have 31 goals, 0 from strikers.

Leeds doesn’t have anybody and Ipswich only has Sam Morsy (Egypt) as far as I remember.

Well I mean, after us they've allowed the fewest goals in the league, so this idea that their defending is a shambles is kind of an expired carton of milk. No question their attacking threat is PL quality (they bring Gnonto and Anthony off the bench), so if they continue to be solid in terms of GA it is indeed going to be hard to keep them out of the top two (which is what really matters).

Ipswich's chariot refuses to turn back into a pumpkin.

Preston is in freefall and they'll see Coventry as a game they should take. The others are tough and Ipswich is obviously huge, as that may well wind up as the battle for the second promotion slot (with Southampton having a lot to say about it).

8 goals each for Summerville and Piroe now, 6 for James. Leeds has some serious attacking firepower.

Almost surreal having a manager who understands how valuable Praet can be when used properly.

The one that works… Fans have short memories. 13 wins in 16 is pretty phenomenal, and I doubt anyone would have complained if offered that two months ago. Perhaps the league is figuring out Enzoball a little, perhaps we were just a a bit lucky to be 13-1. We haven’t had to adjust much because we were winning doing exactly what Enzo wrote on the white board. Now we have to adjust, whether you call that plan B or something else. I think we could stand to be a little more direct at times and occasionally (against strong opposition) let the other team have some possession and hit on the counter, just to keep the rest of the league guessing a bit.

James has 4 goals and 4 assists and is 6th in the league in xG contributions per 90.